Global average connection speed increased 2.3% to 6.3 Mbps in the third quarter of 2016, a 21% increase year over year, according to Akamai Technologies, Inc.’s Third Quarter, 2016 State of the Internet Report.
South Korea had the highest average connection speed at 26.3 Mbps in the third quarter. Global average peak connection speed increased 3.4% to 37.2 Mbps in the third quarter, rising 16% year over year. Singapore had the highest average peak connection speed at 162 Mbps in the third quarter.
Meanwhile, global 10 Mbps broadband adoption rate rose 5.4% quarter over quarter, and 15 Mbps and 25 Mbps broadband adoption rates increased 6.5% and 5.3%, respectively.
The Asia Pacific region continues to lead the world in average peak connection speeds in the third quarter. Four of the Top 10 countries in average peak connection speeds were from the region.
Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Korea all had average peak connection speeds above 100 Mbps again, with Indonesia close behind at 99.3 Mbps.
Eleven of the 14 qualifying surveyed Asia Pacific countries/regions posted increases in 15 Mbps adoption, ranging from 3.7% in Singapore to 94% in Vietnam.
South Korea maintains its reign with the highest average connection speed at 26.3 Mbps, while India had the lowest at 4.1 Mbps.
Singapore remains in the top spot for average peak connection speed at 162.0 Mbps, after a 3.0% quarterly increase while India had the lowest average peak connection speed at 27.0 Mbps.
IPv4 and IPv6
The report also revealed that the number of unique IPv4 addresses connecting to the Akamai Intelligent Platform was just over 806 million, which is 0.7% more than the second quarter of 2016.
Belgium remained the clear global leader in IPv6 adoption with 39% of its connections to Akamai occurring over IPv6, up 3.3% from the previous quarter.
Cable and wireless/mobile providers continued to drive the largest volumes of IPv6 requests, with Comcast Cable, AT&T Communications Americas and Verizon Wireless topping the list with 44%, 43% and 80% of their requests to Akamai being made over IPv6 in their regions, respectively.
Mobile connectivity
Average mobile connection speeds ranged from a high of 23.7 Mbps in the United Kingdom to a low of 2.2 Mbps in Venezuela.
“The holiday season serves as one of the true tests of Internet connectivity as consumers activate slews of connected devices at the same time and more families are at home collectively pushing their broadband capabilities to the limit,” said David Belson, editor of the State of the Internet Report.
“The good news is those limits are getting higher as we have continued to observe positive long-term trends in both average and average peak connection speeds around the world. While ‘batteries not included’ may still cause unwelcome surprises, we’re optimistic that connection speeds won’t spoil the holidays this year.”